ter a dissolute
and shameful life, and was interred in St. Peter's Church. Charles was
at war with the Danes during his brief reign, and achieved the daring
military feat of crossing the Great and Little Belts on the ice, which
enabled him to dictate his own terms of peace with the Danes. The
Swedes consider him one of their greatest kings. His son, Charles XI.,
followed him, and ruled for thirty-seven years. After a brief period
of peace, another war with Denmark ensued, which resulted to the
ultimate advantage of Sweden. This king contrived to obtain from the
Diet the gift of absolute power, which, in the hands of his son and
successor, Charles XII., nearly ruined the nation. Russia, Poland, and
Denmark combined to rob him of a considerable portion of his kingdom,
and Charles XII., at the age of sixteen, displayed an energy and a
skill far beyond his years. He conquered a peace with Denmark first,
and then turned his attention to the rest of his enemies, whom he
overwhelmed and subdued. With nine thousand men he defeated a Russian
army of forty thousand, under Peter the Great, at Narva. He vanquished
the armies of Poland and Saxony, and attempted the conquest of Russia,
but was utterly defeated in the battle of Pultowa, and escaped into
Turkish territory, where he remained for five years. Here he brought
about a war between Turkey and Russia, and the army of the former shut
up that of Peter the Great in the Crimea. The lady who was afterwards
Catharine I. bribed the grand vizier with all her jewels to allow the
Russians to escape, and this event utterly ruined the hopes of the
monarch of Sweden. Finally the Turks drove him from their country,
and, after various vicissitudes, he arrived in his own, and was
killed, in 1718, at Frederikhald, in Norway. While he was away, his
enemies had been appropriating his territory, and Sweden was reduced
to a second-class power.

"The Diet elected Ulrica Eleonora, sister of Charles, queen, who
resigned in favor of her husband, Fredrik I. Another war with Russia
followed, and Sweden lost more of her territory. Adolf Fredrik
succeeded to the throne in 1751, who was elected by the Diet. Still
another war with Russia was carried on during his reign. His son,
Gustaf III., with the aid of his soldiers, increased the powers of the
crown; but he was assassinated at a ball, in 1792, and his son, Gustaf
Adolf IV., came to the throne. His policy involved the nation in a
war with the allies, a